By Hannah Sarney
Welcome to the first edition of the 3 News Animals of the Week collection.
While I spend most of my working hours sifting through the daily death, destruction and intolerance that amounts to 'World' news, I have an inbox bursting with animals. I've decided that it's time to spread the wildlife around in an effort to justify scouring the internet each week for the world's best fluffy, feathery, and finned stories.
Auckland Zoo has announced the arrival of their 30th giraffe calf. Rukiya gave birth to the gangly babe on Monday night. The pair is expected to be out and about in the Pridelands area within the next month.
I highly recommend making the trip to see the new Te Wao Nui experience and taking your grandparents for a spin in the free wheelchairs.
No, no, no, wake up! It's a brand new year and it's time to get stuck back into your quest to watch every cat video ever posted on the internet.
On that note, welcome to the year of the dragon. Well, it will be in a few more hops out of the year of the rabbit. Here is a little boy casually eating cereal with a dragon. A dragon! A dragon (a Rhinoceros iguana)… a dragon!
Incredibly, the Green (common) iguana is one of the most popular pets in the US (2m long on average). However, they're tricky to care for and most are known to die within the first year. In the wild they spend most of their time in the canopy of Central American rainforests. Locals frequently consumed them, so they are referred to as "bamboo chicken," or "chicken of the trees," according to the National Geographic.
BBC News has published an interesting report on the rise of primate pet ownership. Choose your pets responsibly, guys. Otherwise they might end up with the UK Border Agency at Heathrow and be re-named Isaac. If you found yourself caring for a cheetah, would you call it Isaac? Really?
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This little pug sort of looks like he's dressed up as a depressed dragon.
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The world's first photos of the snub-nosed monkey have been published. They inhabit the little-explored forests of northern Myanmar and had previously only been identified by a carcass. Nevertheless, the locals say the monkeys are easy to find when it rains because water pools where their noses should stick out and it causes them to sneeze.
Also, one of the world’s smallest, arguably the smallest, vertebrate species has been discovered and announced. It is a tiny frog that "can perch on the tip of your pinkie with room to spare".
A little one-year-old panda has been filmed enjoying his first snowfall experience in Vienna. Warning: the clip begins with him hanging precariously from a very high tree branch.
A polar bear cub in China has successfully recovered after being rejected by her parents. She's been shown off to the media while she was having little polar bear dreams.
A kākā chick has also made a remarkable recovery after a rough start at birth.
Meanwhile, turtles have high-fived each other, otters have chased a butterfly, and a dog has done what we've all wanted to do with a big pile of leaves.
Oh, and scientists dissected a dolphin that washed up on a beach in Devon.
Phew. I'll let a little leopard cub wave farewell and say "see you next Friday!"
3 News